The living room and bedroom loft area of this apartment are as advertised, but the bathroom was terrible. When we checked in there was a lot of black mold on the shower tile and around the shower fixtures. I'll be happy to provide picture evidence to VRBO as proof that this is a truthful review. After seeing it, I immediately messaged "James", the listing agent/owner, and asked that someone come clean the bathroom. I figured that maybe he didn't know what poor condition the bathroom was in, and thought I was doing him a favor. But unfortunately, he didn't respond and just completely ignored our message/request to clean the bathroom, which makes me believe that the mold is the status quo for the unit. The bathroom had a strong stench of mold and mildew that made it so we couldn't leave the door between the bathroom and living room open. After we got no response, we went to the local market and bought bleach spray and scrubbing pads and cleaned it ourselves for about 30 minutes. It only kind of helped. The bathroom needs to be scrubbed down, tile needs to be sealed, and they need to figure out how to get some heat and additional ventilation to it. It looks a chronic issue that is being caused by no heat or ac in the bathroom.
Concerning James's responsiveness, he seems to only respond to the messages he wants to respond to. A week before our check-in I messaged him, asking about blankets and pillows, and got no response. I then messaged him on the day of check-in about getting keys and he responded. I then messaged him about the bathroom mold and got no response. On the last day, I messaged him about where to leave the keys, and surprise (!), he responded.
This is not a professionally managed unit. If want a cheap apartment in The Marais, and don't care whether you have to clean the bathroom yourself before you use it, then go for it. Otherwise, pick any of the other 1000 places for rent in the 4th Arr.
James - if you had just responded about the bathroom and had your cleaners come to take care of it, I would have left a positive review or no review at all. Good job not responding and making us clean the bathroom. Hope it was worth not paying your cleaners an extra 50 euros to do what already should have been done.